1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention is tools for measuring the size of hands for purposes of fitting gloves.
2. Background
The challenge for certain types of gloves, and thus for glove manufacturers, is to fit the wearer better while also providing sufficient tactility for the wearer. This challenge is especially acute for gloves intended for firefighting and military applications. In these applications, the wearer often requires significant hand protection, and such protection typically necessitates a relatively thick and non-stretchable glove. At the same time the wearer may need to perform tasks that require manipulation of relatively small objects such as the switches and buttons often found on radios, phones, and computers, or the wearer may need to operate a fire arm, an action for which a glove that properly fits to the trigger finger may be critical. The act of manipulating small objects with one's hands and the sense of touch is often referred to as tactility. For gloves, there is an inverse relationship between tactility and the thickness of the glove at the fingertip. Tactility is diminished as the distance increases between skin at the fingertip and the outer surface of the glove at the fingertip.
Therefore it is advantageous to the user to select and wear gloves that minimize the amount of excess material at the fingertips. This is especially the case with the index finger, because this finger is most often used in the manipulation of small objects. While wearers generally recognize the need for a close fit at the fingertip, especially for the index finger, too many glove sizing systems focus on measuring the length of the middle finger, which is generally the longest. In those sizing systems where the index finger is measured, the results are often not easily and accurately reproducible. Each of these problems leads to a fit for gloves that provides less tactility for the index finger than is desired by the wearer.
U.S. patent publication No. 2003/0056384, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses an example of a glove sizing system in which the index finger and the palm width of a hand are measured to determine the glove size for the hand. This system discloses using a printed hand sizing tool placed on a flat surface and positioning the hand to be measured using a pencil to perform the a measurement. As indicated above, because the hand is positioned using only a pencil, difficulties may be encountered in reproducing accurate measurements.